Investors interested in stocks from the Consulting Services sector have probably already heard of CRA International (CRAI) and Gartner (IT). But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

CRA International has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Gartner has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This means that CRAI's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

Value investors analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

The Value category of the Style Scores system identifies undervalued companies by looking at a number of key metrics. These include the long-favored P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that help us determine a company's fair value.

CRAI currently has a forward P/E ratio of 20.99, while IT has a forward P/E of 32.99. We also note that CRAI has a PEG ratio of 1.31. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. IT currently has a PEG ratio of 2.70.

Another notable valuation metric for CRAI is its P/B ratio of 5.20. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, IT has a P/B of 22.87.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to CRAI's Value grade of A and IT's Value grade of D.

CRAI has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than IT, so it seems like value investors will conclude that CRAI is the superior option right now.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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